Depending on who you ask, the quality of life for Albuquerque residents near some of the city's train tracks may be improving over the next few months. But State Sen. Michael Sanchez doesn't want to wait that long to try to save lives in other parts of the state.

Our Third Annual Review of the "Hot Singles" Issue

Well, it's that time of year again, and while October is the harbinger of many thrilling events, Albuquerque The Magazine’s fourth annual "Hot Singles" issue (and my subsequent third annual review of it) could be the most thrilling of all. According to the magazine, Albuquerque was made for romance; and if that's true, this year's "Hot Singles" issue once again addresses our city's alleged purpose in the most ridiculous way possible. Why poor citizens subject themselves to this yearly shenanigan is a question only they can answer. Why Albuquerque The Magazine continues to pass this intellectually insulting editorial content off on the public is a question best not considered, lest you spontaneously combust.

Rivals square off in second annual derby championship

By Simon McCormack

After a season of bone-crunching, high-scoring Duke City Derby action, the undefeated Doomsdames will take on the Derby Intelligence Agency in the championship game that will decide who's crowned queen of the rink.

On NPR a few days ago, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman was quoted saying something that hit me with one of those “Aha!” moments. We all experience them from time to time—those slivers of insight that slip a whole gearbox of mental cogs into place and explain neatly and concisely something that may have been puzzling us for a long time.

Dateline: Nicaragua—Villagers living along Central America’s Mosquito Coast have found a new source of income: fishing for the tons of free cocaine that regularly wash up on the region’s remote shores. According to a report on the guardian.co.uk website, the bags of cocaine are coming from Colombian speedboats on “narco-routes,” which drop the drugs overboard if intercepted by U.S. and Nicaraguan patrols. Currents carry the bags to shore where people living in villages such as Karpwala and Tasbapauni find it. According to the report, locals are offered up to $4,000 a kilo for the lost cocaine—seven times less than the U.S. street value—by Colombian traffickers. “They consider it a blessing from god. You see people all day just walking up and down the beaches keeping a lookout at sea,” Louis Perez, the police chief from Bluefields, the main port on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, was quoted as saying. The local church even has a shiny new floor thanks to a donation from fisherman Ted Hayman, who reportedly found 220 kilograms of cocaine, guardian.co.uk reported. Mr. Hayman has also converted his shack into a three-story mansion with iron gates and a satellite dish from drug fishing money.

[RE: Feature, “Best of Burque Restaurants: Best French Toast,” Oct. 11-17] Wrong! Weck's menu name change from "French toast" to "full belly toast” and "French fries" to "crinkle wedged fries" was indeed a product of a patriotic (more like idiotic) backlash against France by the former owner. My sons worked at Weck's when this change was made. Their only comment to the former owner was "grow up!"